40 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



list of the desirable varieties would make a long article and that 

 without any comment. 



And when fall comes we have still some of the best flowers in 

 reserve, notably the Japanese Anemones and the old-fashioned and 

 really hardy Chrysanthemums. The flowers of both these good 

 things will endure the early frosts and early snowstorms and 

 delight us with a show of bloom on such sunshiny days as we may 

 be favored with in late fall. 



It may be thought that to win my admiration a flower must be 

 hardy. Nothing of the sort. Certainly the basis of all good out- 

 door gardening must be hardy material, but the skillful gardener 

 or amateur will find a place for many tender plants, and especially 

 for the so-called summer-blooming bulbs, such as Gladioluses, Dah- 

 lias, and Tuberous Begonias, all of which are easily wintered in any 

 dwelling house, and he will even find a place for the new large 

 flowering Cannas, but that place is not in isolated beds on the 

 lawn. I have seen them used to the best advantage in small 

 groups in the margin of a shrubbery where the full benefit of 

 their really fine coloring was gotten, but their stiffness and 

 ungracefulness concealed. And the many fine annuals which are 

 so cheaply and easily raised from seeds are not to be overlooked — 

 Phlox Drummondii, Sweet Peas, Asters, Calliopsis, are all fine^ 

 and I am free to confess that there are but few things among 

 hardy plants that I admire more than a fine mass of tall 

 Nasturtiums. 



The most important thing we have to consider in connection 

 with gardening hardy plants and shrubs is their arrangement. 

 We must study to produce a pleasing effect at all seasons and tCK 

 have a succession of bloom so that the garden will never be dull 

 or uninteresting. First, let us take the smallest garden that we 

 can hope to make a gardening success with, that is, a fifty foot 

 city or suburban lot. This is a lot usually considered too small ta 

 do much with in a gardening way, yet it is the lot owned by 

 thousands of well-to-do and cultivated people, and well worthy of 

 consideration. I can best illustrate a good arrangement for such 

 a lot by describing a garden in my neighborhood. The lot is fifty 

 feet front and one hundred and twenty feet deep to an alley. A 

 path leads from the sidewalk to the steps of the front porch ; 

 thence around the west side of the house to the steps of the kitchen 

 porch, and thence straight out to the alley. 



